 Multiple
Threat Alert Center (MTAC)
The Department of the Navy's Multiple Threat
Alert Center (MTAC) provides indications and warning for a
wide range of threats to Navy and Marine Corps personnel and
assets around the world.
Operated by the Naval Criminal Investigative
Service (NCIS), the MTAC utilizes NCIS' worldwide presence
and combination of law enforcement, counterintelligence, intelligence
and security capabilities to identify all available threat
indicators. Analysts, special agents, and military personnel
work in the MTAC around the clock to produce indications and
warning of possible terrorist activity, foreign intelligence
threats and criminal threats that may affect naval operations.
The MTAC is an outgrowth of the Navy Antiterrorist
Alert Center (ATAC). The ATAC was established in December
1983 to address the terrorist threat after the bombing of
the Marine Corps barracks in Beirut, Lebanon, and the murders
of Navy officers in Greece and Central America. As the first
24-hour terrorism watch center in the U.S. intelligence community,
the ATAC successfully supported the Navy and Marine Corps
team for nearly two decades.
A growing appreciation of the changing threat
facing the Department of the Navy in the 21st century, culminating
with the terrorist attacks against the USS Cole in Aden, Yemen,
and September 11, 2001, led NCIS to transform the ATAC into
the MTAC in 2002.
The MTAC epitomizes the multi-faceted nature
of the NCIS mission by linking terrorism, counterintelligence,
intelligence, cyber, criminal, and security information. The
MTAC is a unique platform in that it merges intelligence from
other agencies with information from NCIS source networks
and law enforcement activities worldwide to provide the most
relevant operational support to Navy and Marine Corps commanders.
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